Yuan Xiaoning, Arkonac Derya E, Chao Pen-hsiu Grace, Vunjak-Novakovic Gordana
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York NY, USA.
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine and School of Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2014 Jan 14;4:3674. doi: 10.1038/srep03674.
Electrical signals have been applied towards the repair of articular tissues in the laboratory and clinical settings for over seventy years. We focus on healing of the meniscus, a tissue essential to knee function with limited innate repair potential, which has been largely unexplored in the context of electrical stimulation. Here we demonstrate for the first time that electrical stimulation enhances meniscus cell migration and integrative tissue repair. We optimize pulsatile direct current electrical stimulation parameters on cells at the micro-scale, and apply these to healing of full-thickness defects in explants at the macro-scale. We report increased expression of the adenosine A2b receptor in meniscus cells after stimulation at the micro- and macro-scale, and propose a role for A2bR in meniscus electrotransduction. Taken together, these findings advance our understanding of the effects of electrical signals and their mechanisms of action, and contribute to developing electrotherapeutic strategies for meniscus repair.
七十多年来,电信号已被应用于实验室和临床环境中关节组织的修复。我们专注于半月板的愈合,半月板是对膝关节功能至关重要的组织,其自身修复潜力有限,在电刺激背景下很大程度上未被探索。在此,我们首次证明电刺激可增强半月板细胞迁移和组织整合修复。我们在微观尺度上优化了对细胞的脉动直流电刺激参数,并将其应用于宏观尺度上外植体全层缺损的愈合。我们报告了在微观和宏观尺度刺激后半月板细胞中腺苷A2b受体表达增加,并提出A2bR在半月板电转导中的作用。综上所述,这些发现推进了我们对电信号作用及其作用机制的理解,并有助于开发用于半月板修复的电治疗策略。